Abstract

Serum IgG antibodies to Pseudomonas aeruginosa cell surface antigens were determined by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay. Titres in patients without cystic fibrosis were low (140-235). Those in patients with cystic fibrosis who were chronically infected by P. aeruginosa were very high (1100-20,500), while patients who grew the organism intermittently had lower titres (160-4400). Longitudinal studies showed that raised titres were observed at a very early stage of infection. High titres were associated with a poor clinical state, while low titres were associated with a better clinical state in both chronic and intermittently infected patients with cystic fibrosis. These results suggest that this test is a specific and sensitive measure of the severity and progress of the different stages of pulmonary infection by P. aeruginosa in patients with cystic fibrosis.

Statistics from Altmetric.com

No Altmetric data available for this article.

Request permissions

If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.